• 19 Sep
    CITRUS GREENING: is time running out for the Florida citrus industry? Or is a cure just around the corner?

    CITRUS GREENING: is time running out for the Florida citrus industry? Or is a cure just around the corner?

    Citrus huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening disease, is one of the most destructive diseases of citrus worldwide. Since its discovery in Florida in 2005, citrus acreage in that state has significantly declined and will continue to do so unless a cure is found – and soon.

    At the forefront of the fight to save the Florida citrus industry from this seemingly incurable disease is Dr Michael Rogers and his team from the Citrus Research and Education Centre (CREC) at the University of Florida.  CREC is the oldest (it celebrates its 100th anniversary in November) and largest off-campus experiment station in the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. It is unique among research centres in that it focuses on one commodity – citrus.

    Here Dr Michael Rogers, CREC’s Director, brings Fruit Juice Focus up to date on the background to HLB, the complexities of combatting the disease and how close they are to finding a cure.

    Fruit Juice Focus (FJF): Could you give me some background on greening disease? How it is spread, what the symptoms are and what impact it has on the plants?

    Dr Michael Rogers (MR): Citrus greening disease, also known by its Chinese name Huanglongbing or HLB as it is more generally referred to nowadays, is the worse disease worldwide in citrus production and for good reason. It is the most challenging disease of citrus that we have ever faced, or that anybody has ever faced. It is caused by a bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter and the form we have imported into Florida is Asiaticus. The reason for the Candidatus designation is because this bacterium has never been grown in culture before.  The bacterium is the pathogen that causes the disease and the bacterium moves from plant to plant spread by the insect the Asian Citrus Psyllid – the scientific name being Diaphorina citri.

    The psyllid will move from tree to tree feeding on the leaves and injecting the bacterium into the plants vascular system into what they call the phloem.

    In the same way that humans have arteries and veins, so do plants. These are the phloem and xylem where the phloem moves food and nutrients such as sugar and amino acids from leaves to storage organs and the growing parts of the plant, and the xylem transports water and minerals from roots to aerial parts of the plant. The bacterium gets into the phloem in the plant and eventually it moves down to the root system and will kill off a lot of the root system before you even see any symptoms of the disease above ground.

    The early symptoms that we have seen mimic nutritional deficiencies in a plant which on the face of it suggests that the grower has not done a good job of fertilizing the plant leading to a magnesium or zinc deficiency. That’s what we focused on early on – looking at symptoms that could have just been an issue of poor fertilisation. But in reality those symptoms are a result of the root system not being able to take up the nutrients it needs because of the effects of the disease. And that’s why it’s such a hard disease to manage because you have the root systems dying off below ground and before you even know it the plant is diseased and by the time you start to see the first symptoms and know what’s going on it can be too late.

    FJF: HLB was not discovered in Florida until 2005 – why had the disease not been a problem before?

    MR: We found HLB in Florida in 2005 and the chances are that it had already been here for up to ten years before that. But growers didn’t notice or weren’t looking for it and when they saw the symptoms noted above they probably thought ‘Oh, this is a nutritional issue’, because quite often the first trees that were showing symptoms were along the edges of groves and that’s where trees can typically suffer the worst from nutritional problems. For example fertilizer applications that grower’s use are known to interact with the limestone rock embedded in adjacent roads thus reducing their effectiveness.

    This is what makes HLB such a challenging disease. It’s not like we are growing a row crop such as wheat or corn that you plough under every year and re-plant. We are trying to grow trees long term that are becoming infected and it’s a difficult to identify and the only real control in the past has been cutting out those diseased trees as soon as they become infected. What makes it very difficult is that they can be infected three years or longer before you know that you have a problem.

    FJF: In which country, and when, was the disease first discovered?

    MR: HLB was first discovered in China in the late 1800’s but the first public confirmation in the western hemisphere was in 2004 where it was announced that  Brazil had found HLB. The story goes that they had probably known that there was an issue down there for some while before they finally identified that it was HLB. It was not causing major losses at that stage but definitely spreading undetected.

    This got people’s attention in Florida and we started looking much more closely at what was going on in our own groves and when our state department of plant industries began doing surveys they were now looking specifically for HLB and they eventually found it.

    FJF: To what extent do you think the disease is responsible for the decline in orange production in Florida over the past decade or so?

    The majority of the decline that we have seen in orange production is definitely directly related to HLB. No question. But the waters have been getting muddied a little because in 2004 we had three hurricanes that hit Florida and so most of our production ended up on the ground having been knocked off the trees by the storms.  After that it took a couple of years for our production to try and come back up to where it had been before, so there was this huge drop in 2004 that wasn’t related to HLB. But ironically, shortly after the trees started to recover that’s when we found HLB.

    While the production was coming back post hurricane it never went all the way up to where it had been before because growers were initially trying to cut down trees that had HLB in attempting to stave off the disease.

    And now where we have got stabilised acreage the trees still aren’t producing very well.  As the fruit is getting close to harvest and the trees have had the disease for multiple years the root system can no longer support the fruit load and the fruit begins to drop off the trees before harvest.

    We are looking this year at something in the region of 70 million boxes or less of fruit produced in Florida of round oranges which, when you compare that to over 200 million boxes back in 2002/2003, this is a huge decrease. The majority of this fall in output is directly related to HLB

    FJF: How has the disease been fought in the past and how has this changed over the past decade or so?

    MR: There is a lot of work going on looking for solutions to HLB. A lot of what we have been doing since HLB was first found in Florida in 2005 was really trying to slow down the disease spread, to control the insect that spreads the pathogen. We had a lot of emphasis on psyllid control.

    We also had taken a closer look at our citrus nursery industry because a lot of the spread of HLB occurred by moving infected plant material around the state of Florida.  Our entire citrus nursery industry grows trees outdoors and you had the psyllid come in and feed and infect those unprotected trees which were then moved to groves throughout the state.

    Even more of a problem was the ornamental nursery industry. There is a plant called Orange Jasmine which is a tree that a lot of home owners in Florida plant in the yard. It’s a nice shrub that is easy to care for but it was a host for the psyllid and the pathogen and very common in the nurseries in south Florida where psyllids first became established in the state of Florida.

    When the psyllids first came into Florida its population moved throughout the state very rapidly on the Orange Jasmine plant which was shipped from south Florida to retail outlets such as Walmart, one of the US’s biggest retailers, and many other chain stores. A lot of those stores were selling infected plants that had come from down south containing the psyllid.

    One of the things we did to control the slow-down and spread of HLB was to take our entire citrus nursery industry and put it indoors growing all our nursery plants under screen. This has definitely helped slow down the spread of the disease.

    Growers were also attempting to combat HLB by trying to remove any diseased trees found in their groves.  In an ideal world that is exactly what you would do but the problem is because this disease spreads undetected for a while, by the time the growers had located diseased trees in their groves these trees had probably been infected for two or three years. And as time progressed, more trees became infected and needed to be cut down. We had to abandon the tree removal effort because if you removed all the trees that were likely to be infected they would have to cut down all the trees in the grove.

    Lately we have focused on psyllid management but all the approaches to managing the disease have been short term while we work on a more long term solution – developing a tree that is resistant to citrus greening.

    FJF: The University of Florida has recently announced the development of gene-editing technology to fight HLB – could you tell us more? And can you tell us what other methods are being trialled?

    MR: You mention the genetic modification angle but before we go into that that there is another approach that we have been looking at and this is the conventional breeding programme. We have a big citrus breeding programme at the University of Florida and we have a lot of trees in the field that have been evaluated, including what we call ‘crosses’, that have been created by cross pollination over the past 20 or 30 years, and it has become a natural experiment because you have citrus greening showing up on our field sites and moving through the groves with the result that many trees die. But equally we have many that don’t die.  So in this process we have identified a number of conventionally bred citrus trees that are unique non-commercial plants, varieties that are not currently grown by the farmer that are now showing some tolerance – not resistance. And by tolerance what I mean is that the trees are lasting longer – surviving a bit longer – and producing fruit for a bit longer. They are probably still going to die from the disease eventually but for a grower it means that they will have several more years of productive life out of a tree before it does die. We have actually released two of those new varieties that are showing tolerance to HLB. They are not the round orange but fresh fruit mandarin varieties – one is called ‘Sugar Belle’ and the other ‘Bingo’.

    In addition to the mandarins there are many more new varieties that are being examined but not released yet for commercial breeding which are showing promise. Either for release to the growers or to serve as plants that provide genes that are used later on in genetic modification.

    Which brings me back to gene-editing technology, or genetic modification.

    We have projects right now that our faculty are working on that are identifying genes in citrus plants that are responsible for disease resistance or tolerance.  When they identify a resistance gene they move it from one citrus plant to another to create a resistant variety. Alternatively if it’s a gene that causes HLB then it is more desirable to turn off this problem gene. That’s where the CRISPR technique – an acronym for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats’, gene editing technique comes in and that’s what I think we are all most excited about.

    Generally there’s a lot of negative public perception about genetic modification and people are concerned about things being added to plants and don’t fully understand what it means. With gene editing it involves taking something off or taking something away and people’s perceptions are more excepting of that type of technology and it’s much easier and much quicker to develop.

    We have a researcher here who was the first person to use gene editing in citrus and they are very much involved in using CRSPR. This researcher was able to develop a grapefruit variety that is resistant to the disease citrus canker. The reason they started with citrus canker was because this is a disease that they had been working with for a long time and they knew which genes were responsible. If we can turn off the genes for citrus canker then it shows we can replicate this technology for citrus greening once we have identified the genes responsible for that disease. We can basically go in and turn those genes off as well. It’s a kind of ‘proof of concept’ approach.

    Now the focus is on identifying genes responsible for citrus greening which is not easy as there are thousands of genes that play some role in the various diseases of citrus and the citrus response to the disease. We have multiple researchers now tasked with narrowing down those potential gene targets to find the ones that are most likely to be involved, editing them out and developing that resistant plant for the future.

    Those potential genes that our researchers have already identified are now in the process of being knocked out of the plant. Then it is just a matter of evaluating those plants long term to see if the new plant develops a resistance to the disease.

    FJF: How long do you expect it take for these methods to start to bring some normality back to the groves?

    MR: We are very much in a bottleneck situation now in terms of time and seeing any return to normality. Let me explain. We are talking about growing a tree from a single cell to something that can be evaluated against disease resistance, and growing that tree once you have edited out those genes to get a tree to a size where you can work with can take a year at least.

    It’s a waiting game. You have to do the work, and then you have to wait awhile until you have got a tree that is large enough to work with and that’s where we stand right now. We have a lot of potential plants coming forward but we have to do those tests to see if we had successfully developed a resistant plant.

    If one of those plants turns out to be the one, then that’s great. Problem solved! But in the meantime while you are waiting on that batch to come through we have to continue to develop even more batches that can come through if the first batch turns out to be dud. We don’t want to lose time. Say for example we had ten different targets knocked out and we are growing those up and then those ten didn’t work out we would want to have ten more, or a hundred more behind them – keeping the work going as fast as we can and continuing to develop back up batches. We are not sitting back and waiting. We are being proactive and continuing to work so that somewhere down the line we have a solution in the pipeline.

    FJF: It must be both an exciting and worrying environment to be working in at the moment?

    MR: It is exciting but everybody is very worried about our industry and we are all just hoping that we can find the solution sooner rather than later for the citrus growers. We are running out of time – we have a lot of groves where growers are having to ask themselves every year, or maybe every six months – taking a step back and thinking, can we continue to stay in business? We’ve seen some of the small growers go out of business. They were no longer making enough money to make a living. Some of them are selling their groves off and letting the real estate market move in.  Some growers are trying to keep their land in agriculture and are looking at alternative crops like peaches and blueberries. They are sticking with it because they, like us, know that there is going to be an answer sooner or later and farmers want to be ready to go back and plant citrus once we have that solution.

    We still have growers who are planting citrus right now using a selection of different root stocks that have been developed from the number of provincial breeding programmes that have been running that seem to be a little more tolerant of greening. They are not resistant but growers are planting them anyway and taking extra special care of those plants and doing a better job of watering and fertilization and just trying to keep the plants producing fruits so they have continuity of fruit for the future until we get that true resistant tree.

    FJF: Which other organisations are tasked with tackling the disease and what are the different roles they serve?

    MR: There are a number of organisations involved and the federal government is providing funding to help with the research. In Florida, we have our research centre CREC at the UF and we are the lead institution for citrus research in the state and we are the largest research centre in the world dedicated to one crop. Also in Florida, we have the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and they have a research plant down here focusing on many different areas of agriculture and there is a team of researchers dedicated to working on citrus.

    Outside of Florida in other states in the US there are research teams that are working on different aspects of citrus greening looking at plant genetics and insect genetics. We have grower organisations who are working with us at CREC to help guide the research priorities. Basically everybody both in Florida and the US that is tied to citrus in some way is fulfilling some role in fighting this disease whether it’s providing guidance, research or funding.

    FJF: Greening has spread more widely in Brazil now and more recently been identified in Argentina. Do you think these countries have the necessary infrastructure in place to effectively combat the disease?

    MR: Yes, we have very good working relationships with both Brazil and Argentina and our researchers are collaborating with researchers from those countries.  I do work a lot with some Brazilian organisations and they are right along with us with so many different things relative to this disease. And while they found HLB first in Brazil they are not suffering to quite the extent that we are in Florida.

    In Brazil citrus growers are typically that much larger in scale and the farms are bigger than in Florida where we have a lot of smaller farms. We don’t have as much land in Florida as they do in Brazil. Florida is a state whereas Brazil is an entire country and they have been able to move their industry around as needed. The size of the farm plays a huge role in how the disease spreads because typically psyllids will fly into the grove and they will start feeding on the trees on the edge of the grove and literally move inward.

    The smaller the grove the quicker that grove will become infected and if you have a much larger scale grove like they have in Brazil where they have maybe thousands upon thousands of hectares versus maybe tens of hundreds of hectares that we have in Florida, they come in and treat their groves with insecticides and they can control the psyllids before they move deeper into the grove.

    When you look at the disease spread of HLB it usually starts on the outside edge of a grove and works its way in. That’s why they have been able to slow the spread.

    They have done a good job on area wide control and we have replicated one of their programmes in Florida in the larger groves in the southern part of the state with the result that the trees are surviving longer than those in the smaller groves further north in Florida.

    FJF: The Citrus Research and Education Centre is celebrating its 100th anniversary this coming November. Do you envisage having any positive results from your research to announce at this special occasion?

    MR: We will see! People keep asking me how long it will be before you have an announcement to make. I don’t know – it might be a year or it might be tomorrow. We have a lot of things we are really excited about but we don’t want to get premature talking about things until we know how it’s going to work out.

    Growers have to make decisions right now based on the information we currently have. We don’t want to give them a false sense of security. As soon as we know we have something you are going to hear a lot more from us about it but we are working as fast as we can – working all hours.

    It’s a race against the clock. We know we will get a solution but will it be in time for our industry?

    We are confident that we will!

    By Caroline Calder Features
  • 19 Sep
    CHINA – FRUIT JUICE MARKET

    CHINA – FRUIT JUICE MARKET

    The Chinese fruit juice export market is dominated by the apple juice industry. The country’s capacity to produce apple juice concentrate (AJC) far outstrips demand and it has taken a long time for the industry to find a balance. Production of AJC in China is estimated at around 550 000 tonnes per year and the main export market is the USA.  

    The moderate climate of the growing regions in China coupled with the variety of apples that are suitable for this climate means that China produces low acid or sweet apple concentrate. Apple growing regions further south or north, such as Argentina and Poland are able to produce higher acid supplies, which often commands higher prices.  

    There has been talk of China emerging as a global supplier of orange concentrate in the past, but so far, this has not materialised.  

    It must also be pointed out that domestic uptake of juice in China is increasing every year.  

    EXPORTS 

    Table 1. Chinese exports of apple juice concentrate (tonnes)
    Importers 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 % variance 2016 versus 2015
    World 586619 597838 455800 473829 506358 7%
    Leading importers
    United States of America 292880 318749 216091 240108 256940 7%
    Russian Federation 54702 49080 57031 35925 50700 41%
    Japan 62896 68236 59167 60854 49237 -19%
    South Africa 19532 33625 25561 16086 37957 136%
    Canada 50438 32750 22359 23131 24262 5%
    Australia 26170 26625 25407 25400 23814 -6%
    Germany 19649 8878 2594 16664 7121 -57%
    India 5717 5020 4966 4835 6094 26%
    Turkey 7023 2530 3409 11273 5165 -54%
    Saudi Arabia 3207 4139 4445 3916 4494 15%
    Total Chinese exports to the above countries 542214 549632 421030 438192 465784 6%
    % of world total 92% 92% 92% 92% 92%

    Table 1. Apple juice concentrate (AJC). With imports averaging 50% of the world total over the past five years, the USA is by far the biggest consumer AJC exported by China. In fact the USA imports by volume total more than the other nine countries featured in this table combined.  Russia and Japan are a distant second and third in the table with around 20% of the USA’s total with Russia showing consistent consumption volumes for the period 2012 to 2016 and Japan recording a 21% drop for the same period. Exports to South Africa standing at 37597 tonnes in 2016 have increased markedly in the last two years (2014 to 2015) even improving on the volumes reported in 2013 of 32750 tonnes. Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia have been consistent consumers over the past three years (2014 to 2016) with Germany and Turkey showing notable fluctuations over the same period. Chinese exports of AJC during the period recorded in the table have declined by approximately 13% with the countries listed importing 91% of these exports in 2016. 

    Table 2. China – various juice exports
    (tonnes) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 % variance 2016 versus 2015
    Pineapple juice concentrate 1466 771 1766 10251 8152 -20%
    Orange juice concentrate 4408 4202 3512 3701 2990 -19%
    Apple juice NFC 5014 3652 2789 1130 1032 -9%
    Orange juice NFC 1366 1008 1085 786 990 26%

    IMPORTS 

    Not-from-concentrate (NFC) imports 

    Table 3. Chinese imports of orange juice not from concentrate (NFC) (tonnes)
    Exporters 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 % variance 2016 versus 2015
    World 2042 3663 5561 6807 9911 46%
    Leading exporters to China
    Cyprus 373 1086 2046 2104 4167 98%
    Spain 29 481 1094 792 957 21%
    United Kingdom 21 23 46 218 894 310%
    Thailand 248 381 380 520 805 55%
    Greece 0 8 153 422 576 36%
    United States of America 538 520 469 445 468 5%
    Italy 61 117 171 309 449 45%
    Austria 64 121 121 174 181 4%
    Australia 286 242 167 172 147 -15%
    Mexico 43 87 129 120 145 21%
    Total Chinese imports from the above countries 1663 3066 4776 5276 8789 67%
    % of world total 81% 84% 86% 78% 89%

    Table 3China imports of fresh orange juice (NFC). Cyprus has been the largest exporter of fresh orange juice to China in recent years supplying over 40% of the countries imports in 2016 alone. In 2016 Cyprus reported record exports to China practically double the volumes supplied in 2015. Year on year 2016 versus 2015, all countries in this table showed an increase in exports to China with the exception of Australia who were down 15%. Notable increases include the United Kingdom (UK) which has shown a major uplift in volume shipped to China of 310% for the period. Spain, as would be expected, has been the second largest supplier for the last three years providing 20%, 12% and 11% of the total world exports or fresh orange juice to China in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The countries listed in the table provided 89% of China’s imports during 2016. China’s consumption of imported fresh orange juice has increased by 46% in 2016 against 2015 and a massive 385% up on 2012, that’s 9911 tonnes up from 2042 tonnes.  

    Table 4. Chinese imports of apple juice not from concentrate (NFC) (tonnes)
    Exporters 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 % variance 2016 versus 2015
    World 960 1609 2494 4539 5363 18%
    Leading exporters to China
    Cyprus 206 494 928 1584 2443 54%
    United Kingdom 11 14 38 96 595 520%
    Greece 0 1 99 159 308 94%
    Spain 20 45 89 143 256 79%
    Germany 54 60 89 263 201 -24%
    Thailand 49 79 222 218 168 -23%
    United States of America 154 272 250 299 145 -52%
    Italy 18 34 71 209 131 -37%
    Australia 180 99 92 108 112 4%
    Japan 8 28 27 31 93 200%
    Total Chinese imports from the above countries 700 1126 1905 3110 4452 43%
    % of world total 73% 70% 76% 69% 83%

    Table 4China imports of fresh apple juice (NFC). As with fresh orange juice reported in table 3, Cyprus by far the biggest exporter of fresh apple juice to the Chinese market with a 46% share of the world’s exports to China. The Mediterranean producer’s exports have increased substantially year on year from just 206 tonnes in 2012 to 1584 tonnes in 2015 with a further jump of 54% in 2016 to 2443 tonnes. China’s imports of fresh apple juice from the UK also increased by a significant 94% in 2016 up by 499 tonnes against the 2015 figure of 96 tonnes. Greece and Spain continue to grow their exports into this market with increases of 94% and 79% respectively – 2016 versus 2015. China’s Imports of fresh apple juice from countries worldwide has been steadily increasing with 2016 volumes up 458% against 2012 and up 18% against 2015. The leading exporters to China listed in table 4 constitute 83% of the worlds trade with China.  

    Table 5. Chinese imports of pineapple juice not from concentrate (NFC) (tonnes)
    Exporters 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 % variance 2016 versus 2015
    World 605 1399 1785 2647 3528 33%
    Leading exporters to China
    Cyprus 183 637 1105 1514 2496 65%
    United Kingdom 0 0 11 72 251 249%
    Thailand 175 215 180 223 246 10%
    Costa Rica 0 0 0 29 146 403%
    Italy 16 75 96 154 124 -19%
    Greece 0 6 80 183 72 -61%
    Spain 1 8 53 143 47 -67%
    France 1 9 5 40 28 -30%
    Egypt 0 0 7 21 17 -19%
    Germany 1 12 20 22 15 -32%
    Total Chinese imports from the above countries 377 962 1557 2401 3442 43%
    % of world total 62% 69% 87% 91% 98%

    Table 5China imports of fresh pineapple juice (NFC).  In a very similar pattern to the trade in exports of fresh orange and apple juice to China, Cyprus is the country with the largest volumes of exports of fresh pineapple juice to China during the last five years, with an especially notable increase of 65% in 2016 against 2015.The combined volumes of the remaining nine countries listed here barely make up 38% of the Cypriot total of 2496 tonnes leaving Cyprus by far the biggest trader with China in fresh pineapple juice. The other most consistent exporter to China over the past five years has been Thailand in third place to the UK’s second who have entered the market from a very low base to record volumes of 251 tonnes of exports in 2015, up 249% on the previous year. Similarly, Costa Rica entered the market for China’s fresh pineapple juice imports in a big way in 2016 selling 146 tonnes against 29 tonnes the previous year and Italy remained a regular supplier of volumes averaging 124 tonnes over the three years 2014 to 2016. World trade with China has been on the increase from a low base of 605 tonnes in 2012 rising to 2647 tonnes in 2015 stepping up by 33% in 2016 to 2496 tonnes. The leading exporters featured in this table in 2016 were involved in 98% of the worlds trade with China in fresh pineapple juice. 

     Juice concentrate imports  

    Table 6. Chinese imports of orange juice concentrate (FCOJ) (tonnes)
    Exporters 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 % variance 2016 versus 2015
    World 55852 58995 52806 45565 45874 1%
    Leading exporters to China      
    Brazil 41241 34528 37217 32351 35312 9%
    Israel 11121 19136 9015 9493 9067 -4%
    Netherlands 587 587 522 610 683 12%
    Hong Kong, China 36 46 211 380 258 -32%
    Cyprus 6 5 282 530 159 -70%
    Spain 0 120 96 426 152 -64%
    Mexico 303 1130 3733 705 51 -93%
    Greece 46 114 137 0 42
    Italy 233 172 193 0 4
    Costa Rica 906 1969 422 199 0 -100%
    United States of America 1319 1137 759 654 0 -100%
    Total Chinese imports from the above countries 55798 58944 52587 45348 45728 1%
    % of world total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

    Table 6. China imports of orange juice concentrate (FCOJ). China imports the vast majority of its orange juice concentrate (FCOJ) from Brazil – 77% in 2016. The only other country that comes close to this is Israel with 19% for the same period. And even than Brazil exports nearly four times the volume to China than Israel. Of the remaining countries that are or have been exporting FCOJ into China in the past five years the Netherlands has remained one of the most consistent averaging 597 tonnes per year. China has ceased or greatly reduced imports of FCOJ from three countries that were at one time supplying reasonable volumes – these being Mexico who reached a peak in 2014 of 3733 tonnes, Costa Rica who peaked at 1969 tonnes in 2013 and the USA. 

    Table 7. Chinese imports of pineapple juice concentrate (tonnes)
    Exporters 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
             
    World 929 3314 1534 682 640
    Leading exporters to China
    Thailand 496 1059 732 408 510
    Israel 0 0 0 1 39
    Costa Rica 19 0 37 69 25
    Indonesia 309 1633 684 155 22
    Taipei, Chinese 0 4 0 9 22
    Bulgaria 0 0 0 0 10
    United States of America 7 12 3 0 5
    Greece 0 0 0 0 3
    Philippines 25 596 58 0 2
    Spain 0 0 1 23 1
    Total Chinese imports from the above countries 856 3304 1515 665 639
    % of world total 92% 100% 99% 98% 100%

    Table 7. Imports of pineapple juice concentrate into China.  Thailand supplies 80% of China’s consumption of imported pineapple juice concentrate with 510 tonnes in 2016 and 408 tonnes in 2015. Indonesia was the only other significant player in the market when during the period 2012 to 2014 when they were shipping between 309 tonnes and 1633 tonnes at the high point in 2013. This has subsequently dropped away almost completely to just 22 tonnes in 2016. 100% of the worlds exports to China for pineapple juice concentrate are from the countries listed in table 7. 

    Table 9. China various juice imports (tonnes)
    2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
    FCOJ 55852 58995 52806 45565 45874
    NFC OJ 2042 3663 5561 6807 9911
    APPLE NFC 960 1609 2494 4539 5363
    APPLE CONC. 74 160 253 231 237
    PINEAPPLE CONC. 929 3314 1534 682 640

    Source: Customs trade data

    By Caroline Calder Trade Data
  • 19 Sep
    Fruit juice sector market reports and research

    Fruit juice sector market reports and research

    A SYNOPSIS OF RECENTLY PUBLISHED AND FORTHCOMING FRUIT JUICE INDUSTRY MARKET REPORTS, BOOKS AND RESEARCH.

     

    Juice Concentrate Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 – 2025

    According to this recently published market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global juice concentrate market was valued in terms of revenue at USD 89.56 billion in 2016 and is anticipated to reach USD 117.89 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 3.4% from 2017 to 2025.

    In the report, the global juice concentrate market has been segmented into fruit juice concentrate and vegetable juice concentrate and then further segmented to include clear concentrate, frozen concentrate and powdered concentrate. The distribution channels are reviewed and split by online and offline, with the offline distribution channel segmented into supermarkets and hypermarkets, department stores and others. The report also looks at the market based on applications for juice concentrate such as beverages, soups and sauces, dairy products, bakery products, confectionery products and others. Geographically, regions that are considered in the study include Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. This market has been tracked on the basis of revenue where data is provided in USD billion along with the respective CAGR both on global as well as regional basis for the forecast period of 2017-2025.

    Leading players in the global Juice concentrate market featured in the report include Archer Daniels Midland Co. (U.S.), Ingredion Incorporated (U.S.), Dohler Company (Germany), SkyPeople Fruit Juice Inc. (China), AGRANA Group (Austria), Diana Food (France), Sunopta Inc. (Canda), SVZ International B.V. (Netherlands), Kanegrade Limited (UK) and The Ciatti Company (U.S.) among others.

    Publisher: Transparency Market Research

    www.transparencymarketresearch.com/juice-concentrates-market

    Publication date: July 2017

     

    Global Fruit Juice and Vegetable Juice Industry 2017 Market Research Report

    This report looks at the value of the global fruit juice and vegetable juice market in 2016, projects what it is expected to reach by the end of 2022 and assesses the CAGR growth rate % between 2016 and 2022. Segmented into several key geographical regions the report covers production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and the growth rate of fruit juice and vegetable juice in these regions during the period from 2012 to 2022 (forecast). These regions are North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India.

    The report analyses competition across the top manufacturers looking at production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer split into natural fruit juices and concentrated juice. The manufacturers featured include Pepsi Co, Del Monte Foods Corporation, The Coca- Cola Company, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Welch Foods and Mott, Nestle.

    This report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of fruit juice and vegetable juice for each application, including on-line sales, supermarket sales, and retails sales.

    Publisher: QYR Food & Beverages Research Center     www.qyresearchglobal.com

    Publication date: September 2017

     

    Juice Packaging Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 – 2024

    Juice packaging is intended to provide support, protection from external environmental elements and tamper resistance and is the most competitive segment in the global beverage packing industry and as a result of the emerging consumption of vegetable and fruit juice, the worldwide market for juice packaging is probably going to witness strong growth in future. The key trend prevailing in this market is the increased application of sustainable packaging with the upsurge in the juice packaging using biomaterials and environment friendly products which is likely to create many opportunities. Likewise, innovations concerning next generation packaging along with increased preference for pure juices other than preservative juices will add to the demand for the juice packaging.

    The report looks at the market on the basis of packaging type, technology type, opening type and geography. Packaging type is segmented into flexible and rigid juice packaging with flexible juice packaging split into stand up pouch and Bag-In-Box (BIB) packaging and rigid juice packaging sectioned into cartons, cans and bottles. The report then looks at the aseptic filling, hot filling and blow-fill-sealing processes. Further analysis looks at opening type such as lid type, straw hole opening and clip opening. Geographically, the research covers the Middle-East and Africa (MEA), North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe and Latin America.

    Publisher: Transparency Market Research

    www.transparencymarketresearch.com/juice-packaging-market

    Publication date: Autumn 2017

     

    Fruit Juices

    Fruits Juices is the first and only comprehensive resource to look at the full scope of fruit juices from a scientific perspective. The book focuses not only on the traditional ways to extract and preserve juices, but also the latest novel processes that can be exploited industrially, how concentrations of key components alter the product, and methods for analysis for both safety and consumer acceptability. Written by a team of global experts, this book provides important insights for professionals in industrial and academic research as well as in production facilities.

    Publisher: Elsevier Science and Technology    Publication Date: October 2017

     

    China: Fruit And Vegetable Juices – Market Report – Analysis and Forecast to 2025

    The report provides an in-depth analysis of the fruit and vegetable juice market in China. It presents the latest data of the market size and volume, exports and imports, price dynamics and turnover in the industry. The report shows the sales data, allowing you to identify the key drivers and restraints. You can find here a strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market. Forecasts illustrate how the market will be transformed in the medium term. Report coverage includes:Fruit and vegetable juice market size and value in China; Volume and dynamics of fruit and vegetable juice production in China; Volume and dynamics of exports/imports; Producer prices, import/export prices for fruit and vegetable juice; Fruit and vegetable juice market trends, drivers and restraints; Forecast of the market dynamics in the medium term; Per capita consumption of fruit and vegetable juice in China

    Publisher:  IndexBox Marketing Ltd.       www.indexbox.co.uk    Publication date:  September 2017

     

    Global Cold Pressed Juices Market 2017-2021

    Cold-pressed juices are juices that are extracted from fruits and vegetables using a hydraulic press instead of a centrifugal press. Cold-pressed juices contain more vitamins, minerals, and enzymes than juices extracted using a centrifugal press. This is because centrifugal pressing can result in overheating and oxidization of the juice, which can result in nutrient loss. Cold-pressed juices are becoming more prominent among consumers who are health-conscious and demanding healthier juice drinks. The analysts forecast the global cold pressed juices market to grow at a CAGR of 8.28% during the period 2017-2021.

    The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global cold pressed juices market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sale of cold pressed juices to individual consumers. The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:  Americas, APAC and EMEA

    Publisher:  TechNavio       www.technavio.com   Publication date: May 2017

     

    Fruit Juices World Report

    This report is a comprehensive and far reaching report on Fruit Juices and it provides vital data to business, financial, commercial and government analysts. The Fruit Juices Global Report provides data on the net market for the Products and Services covered in each of 100 countries. The Products and Services covered (Fruit Juices) are classified by the 5-Digit United States Commerce Department Major Product Codes and each Product and Services is then further defined and analyzed by each 6 to 10-Digit United States Commerce Department Product Codes.

    The Fruit Juices World Report gives Market Consumption / Products / Services for 100 countries by 6 to 10-Digit NAICS Product Codes by Time series: 2009- 2016 and Forecasts 2017- 2024. Fruit juices covered include: orange, grapefruit, apple, tomato, pineapple, grape, miscellaneous other juices

    Publisher:  PureData      www.datagroup.org    Publication date: September 2017

     

    By Caroline Calder Trade Data
  • 18 Sep
    Antwerp welcomes the juice industry for the 2017 Summit

    Antwerp welcomes the juice industry for the 2017 Summit

    Now in its fifth year the Juice Summit brings together delegates and exhibitors from the global juice industry for another stimulating and topical conference on the 4th and 5th October in Antwerp, Belgium

    Launched in 2013 with the aim of providing a forum for industry players and their suppliers, the Juice Summit is now a mainstream international conference boasting speakers who are renowned experts and leaders in their various sectors across the European and international juice market. Compared to other industries the Juice Summit is unique in that it is organised by the fruit juice industry for the fruit juice industry.

    Since 2013 the conference has been growing in attendee numbers and last year (2016) the Summit attracted 543 participants from 41 countries representing a total of 291 companies. The organisers are confident that the numbers for this year will be considerably more. This year’s event will allow delegates to maximise the networking opportunities on offer at three evening gatherings at prestigious venues in Antwerp.

    In a packed programme the AIJN, together with its partners the IFU and SGF, has produced an agenda that will cover a wide variety of issues which will look at the business environment as it is today and what the challenges are for the future. Speakers and panellists at the Summit will also share their vision of the future for the fruit juice industry.

    The first morning of the Summit will feature both a Technical and a Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) stream running alongside each other prior to the main conference commencing in the afternoon.

    Highlights of the technical stream facilitated by Helmut Dietrich (Director, Wine Analysis and Beverage Technology, Germany)  include sessions on food fraud, the challenges of growing pineapples, water related risk in the food supply chain, choosing sustainable packaging solutions, Pressure Change Technology – the new process technology for non-thermal pasteurization of fruit juices, low heat shelf life extension by pulsed electric fields, vitamin C retention and pulp/fibre integrity and finally DNA analysis to control raw materials and finished products.

    The CSR stream introduced by Béràngere Magarinos-Ruchat (Vice President Sustainability and Partnerships, Firmenich, Switzerland) will look at consumer perceptions and innovation opportunities, the importer’s perspective on CSR – plan, program, or process?

    This will be followed by presentations on the retail approach to CSR and applying the EU directive on non-financial reporting at national level. After the juice break, session 2 will look at the juice CSR platform – a pre-competitive collaboration that works, Fundecitrus – a 40 year history of successful support to Brazilian citrus growers and finally a presentation on the sustainable trade initiative, aiming for 100% sustainable juice.

    The main conference session convenes on the afternoon of day one with welcome addresses from

    José Jordão, the current AIJN President, Dirk Lansbergen, President of the IFU and Joachim Tretzel, President of the SGF.

    The first session titled the Dynamics of the Global Fruit Juice Market looks at the USA featuring California’s impact on beverage innovation plus the European, Asian and African markets. This is followed by a session entitled Tapping into the Mind of the Consumer and includes presentations on social media, woman of today, how to add value to juice through digitalisation and customised innovation and finishes up with a look at changing consumer behaviour.

    Day two kicks off with a session on the Trends and Challenges for the Agri-Food and Fruit Juice Industry which looks at the impact of Brexit, the European programme on food waste, a presentation on the IDH covenant and a look at the organic market in 2017. Kees Kools, Dohler Group, then chairs a panel session on the Juice Supply Chain – Outlook and Challenges looking at orange, apple, lemon and pineapple juices.  After lunch the conference concludes with a session updating delegates on the Fruit Juice Matters programme with various country case studies and strategy presentations.

    The Juice Summit 2017 will be held at the Hilton Antwerp Hotel in Antwerp, Belgium. Details on how to register, hotel information, speaker profiles and a detailed agenda can be found at www.juicesummit.org

    Information correct at time of going to press

    By Caroline Calder Features
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